Moving
from natural history to a natural material, Stone seems so often to
signify what humans have built with it that the various meanings will be
considered together.

Cloch
is
the basic word meaning “stone”. Large natural boulders are
deliberately erected standing stones are both often called Cloughmore
“big stone” and there are also a number of Cloughfins
meaning “white stone”. Cloghastucan,
“stone of the stack”, a natural stone pillar on the Antrim coast at
Garron Point, was used in the 17th century as a measure of the length of
Ireland.

Megalithic stone tombs are
often called Cloghogle or Cloghtogle
from cloch thógala “lifted stone”, the name of townlands in
Fermanagh and Tyrone. A townland in Co. Antrim in the parish of Skerry
containing a megalithic tomb is called Ticloy
from the tomb within it, now known by the translation “the stone
house” The monument called the Giant’s Ring near Belfast is in Ballynahatty
“townland of the site of a house”, which may refer to the tomb
in the middle.

Megalithic tomb of Ticloy townland,
Co. Antrim: KM

In
both Counties Down and Antrim there are Norman castles at places called Clough,
so that “stone building” is clearly the meaning. Clogher
is another place-name which means something to do with or made of
stone. In the case of Clogher in Co. Tyrone it must refer to stone
building at the royal ring-fort or cathedral. No early stonework is
visible today, but archaeologists found a building which had already
tumbled into rubble by the 5th century AD.

Creag
also
means “rock” and the derivative Creggan
means “little rock” or “rocky place”. However, in the Tyrone
townland Creggandevesky “stony place of black water” it is clear that the
name is derived from a chambered tomb within their bounds. The townland
of Carrickbroad in south
Armagh, originally anglicised Carrigbradagh,
meant “rock of the robbers”. However, this is the site of the castle
guarding the Moiry Pass “between
Dundalk and Newry, and it is likely that the name refers to an older
castle. In the Co. Antrim name Carrickfergus, “Fergus’ Rock”, “rock” also refers to the
castle.

Creggandevesky Court tomb, Co.
Tyrone: EHS

Another
word for a standing stone is coirthe,
as in the townland of Drumnahare
“ridge of the standing stone” by Lough Brickland and Tamnaharry
“field of the standing stone” in the south of Co. Down. Trillick
Trileac “three stones” is
another term for a chambered tomb. Trillick inCo. Tyrone is
named from an example now ruined beside Trillick Castle. Crookedstone
in Co. Antrim was named from a stone long ago removed to build a
bridge. Its Irish name was cloch ime "butter stone",
like the boulder near Strangford Lough.